Ross Township homeowner says trees hacked, disfigured by road crew

Wednesday

Dec 5, 2012 at 12:01 AM

When a Ross Township supervisor last Thursday told longtime residents Lydia and Paul Rabe that a municipal road crew needed to trim the pine trees that line their property, because the branches and vegetation extended too far into the road and affected visibility, the Rabes reluctantly agreed.

CHAD SMITH

Call it the "West End Chainsaw Massacre."

When a Ross Township supervisor last Thursday told longtime residents Lydia and Paul Rabe that a municipal road crew needed to trim the pine trees that line their property, because the branches and vegetation extended too far into the road and affected visibility, the Rabes reluctantly agreed.

They then continued about their business inside their home.

About 30 minutes later, Paul said to Lydia: "Hey, do you hear that? That's a chainsaw. You don't 'trim' branches with a chainsaw."

The couple walked onto their front yard and what they saw horrified them, Lydia Rabe said.

The crew had cut off about 75 branches from the 10 trees at the northern end of the Rabes' property, facing Ross Lane.

"I was in shock. I was in total shock. I was devastated," Lydia Rabe said.

She was especially upset because these trees, which she now views as disfigured, held special significance.

Her husband and late father planted them 40 years ago, around when her two children were born.

The incident has sparked a major dispute between the Rabes and Ross Township.

The Rabes argue the township had no right to take the steps it did, and the township contends that its actions were wholly legal and necessary.

Regardless, the 20-foot trees certainly no longer look the same.

"What gives the township the right to do this to my trees? I've been crying all week about these trees," Lydia Rabe said.

The whole affair was set into motion last week a neighbor told Ross Township secretary Doris Price that a Pleasant Valley School District bus driver had told her that when he drives by her home, also on Ross Lane, some tree branches scrape across the top of his bus.

These branches, the bus driver continued, sometimes make him feel as though he needs to drive into the opposing lane.

The bus driver never officially complained about the vegetation to the school district, however, according to district Superintendent Doug Arnold.

They went to Ross Lane Thursday morning, saw that branches belonging to many neighbors' trees on the road — not just the Rabes' — extended into the road or affected drivers' visibility.

"We determined that there was a problem on the whole road. We went out there for one particular reason, then determined that there was a problem with tree branches on the entire road," Beers said.

So the crew got to work with their chainsaws.

Though the township had permission from residents to "trim" the trees, Beers said that he feels the crew didn't even need it.

He says the township owns the right-of-way 20 feet in both directions from the yellow line in the center of the road.

OK, says Lydia, but the trees on her property are 24 feet back from that center line.

But Beers said that, because the trees were located at and near an intersection, the rules are different.

He says that when trimming trees at an intersection, the township actually owns the property 50 feet in both directions of the median line of the road.

But here's a wildcard: According to the Rabes, the township sometime between last Thursday — when the trees were given their "haircut" — and Tuesday, installed a brand-new stop sign at the corner of the loop of Ross Lane and Ross Lane.

That effectively created an "intersection" and granted the township more latitude but it came only after the trees had been trimmed.

Asked about the new stop sign, Price said she knew nothing about it.

She said the roadmaster could answer questions about it but added that he had left for the day.

As for what's going to happen now, Lydia said that she wants to be made whole for the trees.

Lydia said that if the township doesn't reimburse her in some way, she is going to sue.

Told of her threat, Beers said: "Well, she's just going to have to sue us."